AVATAR director James Cameron has paid tribute to the Midlands diver who accompanied him on underwater explorations of the Titanic, but died in an accident at the wreck of its sister ship this year

AVATAR director James Cameron has paid tribute to the Midlands diver who accompanied him on underwater explorations of the Titanic, but died in an accident at the wreck of its sister ship this year

Carl Spencer, 39, from Kings Bromley, Staffordshire died in May after apparently suffering an attack of the bends while filming underwater at the Britannic, which sank in the Aegean Sea after being hit by a mine in 1916.

The director and diver met when Cameron invited him to join an expedition to the Titanic in 2003, after becoming fascinated by the wreck while making his 1997 blockbuster about its doomed maiden voyage.

“Carl was a friend,” Cameron told the Sunday Mercury. “We had planned a number of things to do together including more diving at the Britannic.

“His tragic death was something that rocked the whole diving community because he was such a great guy.

“Whenever something like that happens – and it does periodically when people are pushing the envelope and stepping out to the extreme edge of human experience – we mourn and go on.

Fierce temper

“We are going to keep exploring. We are not going to pull back because it is risky.

“Carl was not someone who took risks. At least, he took risks understanding them.”

Carl, who was married with two children, described himself as “just a plumber from Cannock” because he ran his own air conditioning business in Hednesford. But he had been diving since he was a teenager and was highly respected.

As well as visiting all the wrecks of ships linked to the Titanic, including rescue ship the Carpathia, he was part of the team that helped recover the body of Donald Campbell and raise the Bluebird from Coniston Water.

He had jumped at the chance to join Cameron in looking round the Titanic because they were using mini-submersibles, which only a decade earlier before had been classified Russian hardware.

In spite of Cameron’s reputation as a man with a fierce temper Carl, in an interview in 2007, said he was “one of the most level-headed guys I ever met. Generous, genuine and loyal.”

When he asked bosses at the air-conditioning firm to give him time off to make the Titanic dive they refused – so he quit his job.

“Cameron was offering me the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Carl.

“I wasn’t going to be the guy who didn’t sign The Beatles, so I went.”